Do you have a scarcity mentality toward ideas? I used to.
When I first began blogging, I was also working full-time at my church. I had to come up with great ideas at home and at work. I was frankly worried I’d run out of good ideas. So I hoarded them.
I had an idea journal. Whenever a project or blog post came along, I took some tweezers and extracted the smallest idea I could find. After all, I didn’t want to waste all my good ideas. I had to keep my million dollar ideas for projects worthy of their brilliance.
Unfortunately, that led to some pretty underwhelming blog posts and church projects. I had a scarcity mentality toward creativity, and creativity was scarcely reflected in my work.
Nobody was reading my blog. I didn’t feel very good about my work at the church. So I made a decision. I started putting my best ideas into practice. Instead of plucking my tiniest ideas out of my idea journal, I grabbed handfuls. I gave every good idea I could muster.
And guess what! I didn’t run out of good ideas. In fact, great ideas started flowing freely. My idea journal grew from a short list into pages and pages.
Creativity isn’t some scarce resource we need to cautiously tap into. God, the author of creativity, is still writing. And He’s made us the main subjects in His masterpiece story. We need to join in on the story He’s writing and use the creativity He gives.
We can use it for His glory. Why wouldn’t He freely lavish His creativity on us?
I encourage you, give your all. Don’t hold back the gifts God has given you. He’s given you creativity in abundance. Use it all for His glory.
